You can't take the sky from me
by NuclearArmadillo
Summary: Team RWBY and company head for an inhospitable region of space filled with crime, corporate corruption, and an up and coming terrorist organization . Real world space combat AU.


**Hello everyone and welcome to my second story. I would like to point out that many of the non-RWBY characters, ships, technology, and locations are not original. They are from a 2001 space-sim video game called Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos. The only reason that this story isn't labeled as a crossover is that the game is so obscure that it is not listed anywhere on this website. I understand that this is an extremely niche type of story so I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Enjoy :)**

Chapter one: First day on the job

With a slight push, Ruby Rose propels herself forward through the zero-gravity section of the largest space station the Alliance has ever constructed, lovingly dubbed, _Apollo Station_. The young brunette glances out the windows and takes in the sight of the huge mountains of India's northern region of Kashmir from low Earth orbit. Grabbing a handhold, Ruby swings herself around a corner without losing any speed and floats toward one of the station's many docking connections for navy ships.

Ruby inverts herself upon seeing the end of the hallway and comes to a stop when her boots come into contact with the wall. The young navy officer gives herself another small push and stops herself in front of another large window. Just outside the window is Ruby's new home and workspace for the foreseeable future, the _Crescent Rose._

Being the newest type of spacecraft to be manufactured by the NSO Laplace corporation, the NSO-1950a Tachyon Class Advanced Patrol Combatant, or Patcom for short, is one of the fastest and most technologically advanced ships in space. A smile tugs at Ruby's lips as she gazes at the 88-meter-long, 2,112 ton, matte-grey spacecraft.

The central 'body' consists of a circular mid-section with two stubby wing pylons on either side for the weapon stations. Attached to the front and shaped like a partially-flattened bullet is the NSO-1502 Advanced Command Section. A fully-capable ship by itself, the command section is capable of detaching from the main ship and re-docking as well as being equipped with a weapon hardpoint on the 'chin' of the craft. On the rear of the Patcom is a large, rectangular box containing the ship's extremely powerful thruster array.

Ruby's moment of peace is interrupted with the sight of Blake Belladonna, dressed impeccably in a black navy uniform with white accents. Blake stops herself next to Ruby and says with a smile "Look who finally graduated! Ready to get to work?" Ruby moves over to Blake and hugs her while saying "Totally! I can't believe I got picked to be captain right out of naval academy. You guys have been serving on other ships for two years now, right?"

Blake nods and her amber eyes shift once more to the Advanced Patcom, the cat Faunus says "I can't believe that admiral Ironwood is trusting a newbie crew with such a new and expensive ship. These things are costing the navy a mint." Ruby shrugs and responds "Well, I looked at the ship's manifest and some of the ship's cost is offset by a downgrade of our weapon and shield systems. Heh, just what you want on a vehicle made for the military."

Both girls continue making idle chat, awaiting the arrival of the other two crew members for the newly acquired ship. Sure enough, both Yang and Weiss come floating down the same corridor as Ruby first arrived from, dressed in similar military uniforms. Yang shouts "Hey baby sister!" and catches Ruby in a hug, sending the two girls bouncing around the tight corridor like pinballs.

After re-orienting themselves, Weiss says with a huff "Well Captain… ready to get underway? I just received word that there is a mission waiting for us once we get onboard. Also, it's good to see you again Ruby. I haven't seen you in a long time." Ruby replies "It's good to see you too, Weiss. Wait, what type of mission is this?" Weiss shrugs and says "Something about a wealthy business owner in a large corporate cruiser in a standoff with police forces near Phobos."

Blake's cat ears perk up and a smile spreads across Ruby's face. Ruby triumphantly says "Well if there's trouble then what are we waiting for?!" With that, Yang opens up the door leading to the tube that connects to the station for docking ships. Ruby is the first to enter, using the ladder to steadily guide herself downward until the Patcom's artificial gravity takes over and anchors the young captain to the floor of her spacecraft.

Once the four girls are safely on board, the group makes its way to the command bridge at the front of the vessel. Upon arriving, Ruby takes in the sight of the four workstations set up around the slightly cramped bridge. The navigation/pilot workstation is placed at the very front of the bridge, in the center of the four large, red tinted windows that have integrated electronics for displaying vital ship systems to the crew as a means of not forcing them to check their own displays and instruments during combat situations.

In the back of the bridge, near the entrance is the commander's workstation with a series of computer monitors and keyboards surrounding the Capitan's chair. In-between the pilot and commander stations and pushed off to either side of the bridge is the engineer and weapon stations, both facing toward the sides of the craft rather than the front. Both stations are surrounded by a network of complex computer systems and monitors that are completely incomprehensible to the untrained eye.

Ruby takes her seat in the Captain's chair while Weiss boots up her pilot/nav station while Blake mans the engineering station with Yang at the weapon station. Ruby turns on her computer and sees an audio message from Alliance Naval high command waiting to be opened. The young Captain opens the message and begins the message begins to play.

 _January 17, 2387_

 _15:52 (Military Time)_

 _Sender: Alliance Navy Command_

 _Captain Rose,_

 _A serious situation is currently developing at Mars' moon, Phobos. For reasons that are currently unknown, a local billionaire has seized control of a VS-220-x Capitalist Class Corporate Cruiser named the "Tiger Shark" and proceeded to attack several mining and residential bases on the surface of the moon._

 _This ship is privately owned by the suspect in question and is believed to be outfitted with military grade weaponry and defensive systems. Currently, the cruiser is on the dark side of Phobos and threatening lethal action against police ships that have set up a perimeter, effectively trapping the cruiser for the time being._

 _We want you to travel to Phobos as fast as possible and assist the police in disabling the cruiser and either apprehending the suspect or, if necessary, eliminating him._

 _Good luck_

Ruby closes the message and says "Weiss, prepare to un-dock and lock in the location of the police forces at Phobos. Blake, perform a full system shakedown as fast as possible. I want our reactor running at 100% so we can put our propulsion systems to effective use. Yang, get a diagnostic of all of our weapon systems so we can be ready if things get ugly."

The three girls begin working furiously on their respective tasks. Within a minute, Weiss says "We're ready to undock, Captain. Just say the word." Ruby curtly replies "Do it." Weiss uses her fist to forcefully depress a large button on her control console, undocking the Patcom from the station. Ruby instantly feels her stomach in her chest as the artificial gravity turns off. Soon, the entire ship begins vibrating violently for a few seconds as the ship's engines activate.

Blake says "Engines are spun up. We're ready to head to Phobos whenever you're ready." Ruby nods and says "Weiss, let's get this show on the road." Weiss locks in the navigation point which appears on the central window as a circular yellow node labeled 'police waypoint'. The white-haired pilot activates the Patcom's maneuvering system, a series of dozens of small thrusters outside the craft that allow the ship to orient itself in the vacuum of space.

Weiss turns the ship to point at the waypoint and says "We're 78.05 million kilometers from the waypoint. We'll be there in just under five minutes." Ruby smiles and says "Punch it."

Weiss taps in a command on her keyboard, activating the Patcom's class 3 Linear displacement system or, LDS drive. A series of field generators around the ship begin exploiting a trick to manipulate the pocket of space-time around the spacecraft, accelerating the Patcom to 90% the speed of light. Instantly, the small bit of Earth that is visible vanishes behind the accelerating ship.

Now safely traveling at maximum speed toward Phobos, Ruby says "Yang, what's the status of our weapon loadout?" Whilst looking at her screen, Yang says "Okay, the pair of Pulse-accelerated PBCs (Particle beam cannons), the Cryo PBC, the quad-barrel light PBC, the Sniper cannon, and both of the missile launchers are online and ready for use." Ruby replies "Sweeeetttt. Keep the safeties on until I give the go-ahead."

After another few minutes of travel, Weiss says "We're coming out of LDS, should be right in the middle of the police group." Sure enough, six Enforcer Class Police Patcoms appear through the windows. Strikingly similar in design to _Crescent Rose_ , the police spacecraft sport the same basic shape, albeit almost twice as large with a reduced weapon load and yellow, black and white police markings.

Weiss decelerates the Patcom and matches velocities with the police group who are currently in orbit around Mars, only 50 kilometers from Phobos. Ruby opens a secure communications channel with the police vessels and says "This is captain Ruby Rose of the navy vessel _Crescent Rose._ We're here to assist in any way possible."

Silence fills the bridge for a second before a male voice replies "Captain Rose, this is Sergeant Holgate. I'm in charge of the police vessel designated _Romeo Delta Yankee._ Good thing you showed up, I don't know if we can keep this guy contained for much longer." Ruby replies "Give me an update on the situation, Sergeant."

Holgate says "The cruiser has been on the far side of Phobos for the past ten minutes. The bastard piloting it managed to fry at least half of the residential and industrial areas on the surface before he retreated to the opposite end of the moon. We have two more ships on either side of the moon, preventing him from getting through and doing more damage."

Ruby processes the information and asks Yang "Can any of the weapons we have on board allow us to attack the cruiser without leaving ourselves exposed?" Yang checks and says "Uhm, yeah. We have one. It's a long-range remotely piloted missile with a heavy fusion device as a warhead." Ruby immediately responds "No. We are not using a nuclear weapon with people still on that moon… I have a new idea."

The young navy captain says over the communication channel "Everyone, I have a plan. I want all of the Patcoms currently hanging back from the moon to fall into formation with me. We're going to execute a burn putting us at a velocity of five kilometers per second in relation to Phobos. The moon is only 22 kilometers wide so we'll have the element of surprise on our side. Once the cruiser comes into view we'll fire off our disruptor missiles to knock out it's shields and then hit it with everything we've got. Your men can take it from there, Sergeant."

The six police Patcoms acknowledge Ruby and fall into a triangular formation behind the navy ship. Ruby says to Weiss "Go with throttle-up." The white-haired pilot pushes the throttle forward and the Patcom accelerates, pushing the four girls into the back of their seats due to the intense g-forces. Upon reaching the proper speed, Weiss pulls the throttle back to zero, letting the warship's inertia carry it over the surface with the police ships following closely behind.

Ruby leans forward and says to Yang "Remove all weapon safeties and arm our disruptor missiles." Yang taps in a quick command and says "All four missiles are armed. They're ready for you when you need 'em Weiss."

The Patcoms pass over Phobos, keeping close to the scarred moon. Ruby gazes at the numerous small craters and destroyed settlements that litter the miniscule body that hardly qualifies as a moon. After only four seconds of travel, the group crests over the far side of Phobos and the group angles their ships to point at the cruiser in question.

Ruby's eyes scan the cruiser and notices two important details. Firstly, the smooth, bullet-like shape of the 500-meter-long ship painted in white with six large thrusters protruding from the rear of the ship. Secondly, Ruby notices the ship is pointed directly at the group of warships. Ruby's eyes go wide and she screams over comms. "EVERYBODY SCATTER!"

The group follows Ruby's instructions and spread out using their maneuvering thrusters while firing off their disruptor missiles. Soon, 28 missiles are fired and streak toward the cruiser. The cruiser fires its engines and begins accelerating toward the group, reaching 4.5 kilometers per second almost instantly.

Just before the missiles find their mark, the cruiser fires its main gun, a heavy PBC, at the unshielded belly of one of the police Patcoms. The bolt of high-energy charged particles impacts the police vehicle in less than a second and punches a 5-meter-wide hole through the center of the ship, crippling it.

An instant later, the missiles impact the cruiser and their EMP warheads detonate, frying most of the delicate electrical equipment that keeps the ships engines and weapon systems running. With the enemy ship disabled, Ruby shouts over comms. "Open fire!"

Weiss begins firing _Crescent Rose's_ pair of Pulse-accelerated PBCs as the remaining police vehicles opens fire with their respective weapons. Dozens of bolts of compressed charged particles impact the armor of the cruiser. After seven seconds of sustained fire, the Patcoms slip out of 12 kilometer effective range of their weapons.

Ruby asks Blake "Have we breached that damn thing's armor?!" Blake checks her sensor data and says "Not even close. We'll need about 30 seconds of sustained fire to pierce that reinforced plating." Ruby's eyes narrow and she says "Yang, arm the sniper cannon and give Weiss full control. Weiss… take him out." Yang taps in a command and says "Weiss, cannon is loaded. Take the shot."

A circular targeting reticle appears on the central window directly in front of Weiss. The pilot grips her joystick and wraps her finger around the trigger. Weiss closes her scarred eye and says "Magnify" under her breath. The ship's computer responds by greatly enlarging the image on the section of window in front of Weiss, allowing her to see the thin, rectangular bridge window of the cruiser in perfect clarity. Weiss moves crosshairs of the targeting reticle over the bridge and half-squeezes the trigger, locking the target.

Before Weiss can fire the cannon, the cruiser's weapon systems recover from the disruptor missile's EMP blasts and fires a single, heavily modified seeker missile. The missile makes the 25 kilometer trip from its launcher to _Crescent Rose_ in an instant, homing in on the bridge. Luckily, the Patcom's LDA shields (Linear Displacement Array) distort a small region of spacetime 100 meters in front of the bridge, visible as a large flash of purple light. The missile hits the shield and is disintegrated immediately. Out of reflex, Weiss fully squeezes the trigger.

Inside the Sniper Cannon, an extremely dense bolt of charged mesons is formed and discharged using an artificial gravitational field. The bright green projectile speeds toward the cruiser and passes through its shield without noticing. The bolt tears a massive hole through the center of the ship and comes out the other side, destroying nearly every vital system due to the heat and massive amounts of radiation.

Ruby sees that the cruiser is completely trashed and breathes a sigh of relief. The young captain says "Well, that was an adventure. Sergeant Holgate, what's the status of the damaged police ship?" The sergeant responds "We've made radio contact with the crew. Search and rescue assets are being scrambled as we speak. Thanks for the assistance, captain. I don't know what would've happened if you guys hadn't showed up." Ruby smiles and says "Not a problem. We'll be heading back to base momentarily."

Before Ruby can give the order to head back to Earth, Blake points at the crippled hulk that was once the cruiser and shouts "LOOK!" Ruby shifts her vision toward the hulk and notices that it is quite literally glowing. A second later, numerous radiation alarms go off on the bridge as the cruiser glares with a striking blue light. Realizing the situation, Yang says "Weiss must've clipped the reactor with the sniper cannon! That thing's going nuclear!"

Thankfully for _Crescent Rose's_ crew, the police forces, and all the people on Phobos, the cruiser is well over 50 kilometers away as the reactor goes critical, vaporizing the ship in a massive blast of nuclear fire.

To the crews in the nearby spacecraft, the blast is a completely silent event, as there is no medium in the vacuum of space that would allow sound to travel.

With all the excitement and danger now over, Ruby says "Well, not bad for our first day. Weiss, take us back to Apollo station.

After several minutes of travel and lengthy docking procedures, the _Crescent Rose_ has once again found its home back in low Earth orbit. The crew disembarks and makes their way to one of the planning rooms at the request of admiral Ironwood himself. Thankful to be back in normal gravity, the four girls enter the room and see the admiral already there.

Ironwood stands up and says with a slight smile "Hello there, ladies. How did your first mission together go?" Ruby exchanges a glance with Yang and says in a slightly depressed voice "Smoothly… I just wish we had gotten there sooner." Ironwood nods slightly and says "So I've heard. We're already making preparations to send humanitarian aid to Phobos. We have to at least try to salvage something from this disaster." Ruby simply nods and keeps her eyes on her boots.

Ironwood sighs and says "Putting today aside, I have an assignment that you might be interested in. It's dangerous, a long way from home, and you'll have to rely on far fewer resources than you do here in the Sol system. Ruby's eyes narrow and she says "Go on…"

Ironwood replies "The Badlands star cluster is known as one of the most dangerous and corrupt regions in known space. Its ruled almost entirely by the corporations that set up mining colonies just over century ago when the cluster was first discovered. Not to mention the wide variety of criminal gangs and rampant piracy. We want you to go with a small fleet to support our forces in the cluster and help bring some order to what is basically a crime-ridden hellhole."

Ruby exchanges glances with her shipmates, making it obvious the girls are on the same page without saying a thing. A single word escapes the captain's lips "Done."


End file.
